SC sets Feb 9 for hearing on caretaker govt review petitions

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday deferred until February 9 the hearing on three separate review petitions challenging its 2011 verdict that scrapped the non-party caretaker government system.

A full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, which was scheduled to hold hearing of the matters on Sunday, deferred the date as Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman is now out of country.

BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and five conscious citizens lodged review petitions with the Appellate Division earlier to turn down its 2011 verdict that scrapped the non-party caretaker government system.

The first review petition was lodged by five citizens including Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of rights organisation Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, on August 27 last year saying that the caretaker government system had been introduced through political consensus of the people and therefore, it has become a basic structure of the constitution, which cannot be scrapped.

The Appellate Division verdict that had cancelled the 13th amendment of the constitution is self-contradictory as the court in its short verdict said that the next two national elections (10th and 11th parliamentary elections) could be held under the caretaker government, but this directive was not mentioned in the full judgement, they said in the petitions.

The four other petitioners are Tofail Ahmed, M Hafizuddin Khan, Md Jobirul Hoque Bhuiyan and Zahrah Rahman.